This February, California-based asteroid mining startup AstroForge embarked on what it hoped would be one of the most important launches in history: the first commercial deep space mission.

And scraping in space, advocates say, could cut down on the damaging impacts that mining has on this planet. Space-resource advocates also want to explore the potential of other substances.

As the crypto industry evolves in 2025, cloud mining remains a popular choice for those seeking passive income without the ...

Later this year, the startup has a second test flight planned to study a space rock up close that could become a prime target for a real mining mission. For a company founded in 2021, it’s a ...

But others question whether mining these metals in space and bringing them back to Earth is really feasible, especially in the near term – and whether it could have its own unique, but just as ...

Currently, space mining’s primary draw is to sustain human activity in space. That is, materials offered by asteroids and the lunar surface are typically of a lower grade than those found on ...

Space mining may also be used to prolong missions. As humans voyage further into outer space, it becomes increasingly important to be able to generate usable products with local materials.

By the 2050s, it’s likely mining will happen on a small scale to develop the necessary technologies and produce limited amounts of material to be used in space. Large-scale mining will probably ...